


the peaceful quiet you create for me

by ourdarkspirits



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Pre-Relationship, but on the way to a relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27342550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourdarkspirits/pseuds/ourdarkspirits
Summary: Nile has seen a lot since she first died. She's lost count of how many times she's died. But sometimes some deaths hit harder than others. And sometimes what Nile really wants is to be held.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman
Comments: 14
Kudos: 138





	the peaceful quiet you create for me

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from "Easy Silence," by the Chicks

Nile woke up slowly, stretching her arm out and discovering she was alone. If she were more awake, she would admit that it was the emptiness that woke her up. She kept her eyes, squeezed shut, trying to force herself to go back to sleep, but no matter what position she tried, she couldn’t. With a huff of frustration, she gave up and threw off the blankets, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

“Shit,” she muttered at the shock of the cold on her bare feet.

She took a moment to get used to the sensation and then stood up. When she left the room she could hear movement in the kitchen. The soft sounds of movement drew her in. Outside of the kitchen, she took a moment to watch as Booker quietly moved around the room making coffee. Part of her wanted to stay in the entry and just watch him. Maybe she would have but then he turned and saw her and all she knew was that she needed to touch him.

“Nile,” Booker breathed.

She crossed the room in a few short steps and wrapped her arms around Booker’s waist. His arms slowly came up to encircle her and she let her head drop against his chest. For a moment they just stood there as Nile closed her eyes and breathed him in.

“It’s early, _chérie._ You should go back to bed,” Booker murmured into her hair.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Nile replied, not lifting her head from where it rested against him. “You weren’t there.”

She was too tired, really, to worry about how that would sound until she felt him still. Nile started to pull away until Booker’s arms tightened slightly around her. A comfortable sigh escaped her.

“Sorry. I couldn’t sleep either,” Booker said, “so I decided to make some coffee.”

“Coffee sounds good,” Nile murmured.

“You’re going to have to let me go, _mon cœur,_ so I can get it,” Booker told her gently.

Nile reluctantly withdrew from him and watched as he got two mugs out of a cabinet and poured coffee. As she watched, her mind wandered to the previous night.

It was supposed to be a simple job. They were going to gather enough information to expose another exploitative company. Simple enough, except they hadn’t been prepared for the level of security, though in hindsight they should have been. Joe and Andy and Quynh had gotten separated from them and Nicky was in his bird’s nest monitoring. While they were isolated, Booker was hit with a high caliber round. Nile stayed with him for what felt like an eternity as his skull reformed after she killed the men who shot him.

When they finally got home, Nile had crept into his room.

_“Booker,” she whispered into the darkness. “Are you awake?”_

_He grunted and she heard him shift. “Yeah.”_

_“Can I–,” she wasn’t sure how she wanted to finish her question. She just knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep by herself tonight. Not after everything._

_Thankfully he understood her. “Yeah,” he said and she hurried across the room and slipped into his bed._

_Booker hissed as her cold feet brushed his leg. “Sorry,” she muttered._

_“It’s alright,” he said._

_Nile scooted closer to him and he let an arm drop over her waist. His warmth enveloped her and she felt like she could breathe for the first time since she saw his head blown apart. Her fingers tangled in his and she slept._

“Come on.” Booker’s voice cut into her thoughts.

Nile followed him into the living room. She needed to scrub the image of his lifeless body out of her mind. She needed to know he was ok. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to take a close look at why.

Booker sat down on the couch in the living room and Nile sat down next to him, swinging her legs up to drape over his lap. He handed her a mug filled with coffee. It was the perfect color and when she took a sip, she realized it was the perfect sweetness, too.

She let her head drop against his shoulder. “When I was a kid, I used to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings.”

“It’s not Saturday,” Booker replied quietly.

“I know. But you can watch cartoons any day of the week now,” Nile told him.

She liked this safe house. It had cable paid for by a shell account; she knew they would find cartoons if they looked for them.

Booker snorted and reached for a remote, flipping through the channels until he found a cartoon that was already old when she was a kid. She settled further into his side, and he let an arm drop around her waist. After he set his coffee aside, he let the other rest on her knee. It was comfortable. She liked being close to him, sitting in the quiet of the early morning, watching cartoons and drinking coffee.

“How is the coyote running in the air?” Booker asked after a few minutes.

“As long as he doesn’t look down, he can keep going,” Nile replied drowsily.

“I see,” he said in a tone that implied he didn’t.

She smiled a little, too tired to fully explain. “As long as he doesn’t see how far he can fall he has enough confidence to keep going.”

She was pretty sure that didn’t make sense either, but she felt him nod and murmur some kind of assent. He still didn’t really get it, but he was happy to sit with her draped across his lap watching cartoons while she sipped her coffee. Her eyelids grew heavier. She barely noticed when Booker pulled the mug out of her hands.

Later, she would think about how much she loved quiet mornings with Booker. She would think about the easy silence that fell between them in those moments. Then she would realize she didn’t just love quiet mornings with him: she loved Booker. Later, Joe and Nicky would wander into the living room and see Booker and Nile sleeping together on the couch and would lower their voices to avoid disturbing them, laughing softly together.

But in that moment she just enjoyed the comfort of Booker holding her as she fell back to sleep.


End file.
